Overview
- Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences researchers have created a 'metafluid', a liquid with programmable properties.
- The metafluid's properties can be altered to change its compressibility, optical behavior, and viscosity, marking a significant advancement in metamaterials.
- Applications of the metafluid include enabling robots to handle objects with varying pressures without additional programming, and potentially in hydraulic systems, electronic inks, and shock absorbers.
- The fluid's unique structure, consisting of air-filled elastomer spheres suspended in silicon oil, allows it to transition between Newtonian and non-Newtonian states.
- The development represents a leap forward in the field of metamaterials, with researchers planning to further explore its acoustic and thermodynamic properties.